Blindsided

From every direction at once, a being simultaneously watched everything that was happening within the dungeon, this being was not a god, a devil or even an actual dungeon core or master for that matter.

It was a being unknown to most, who had seized control over a dungeon core long ago, growing the dungeon it controled into what was now known as the world dungeon with but a single goal, watch its challengers struggled and ultimately fail at clearing the dungeon.

At first, it had seen with a bad eye the interference of that masked human, daring to install his house into the dungeon and breaking common sense by feeding on the creatures populating it without any issue but soon, it had understood why it had been having trouble taking action against him.

Within the body of the human, resided a sibling of the being controlling the world dungeon, one much different from itself but one of its blood nonetheless and soon, the being in charge of the dungeon saw good results of letting the human be, its sibling had used its very own power and empowered the monsters protecting the dungeon, taking away their natural instincts and forcing them into cooperation and giving them a common goal, with this simple action that hadn't even taken a lot of time, the dangerousness of the dungeon as a whole had severily increased, the being had already received assistance from other of its siblings in the past but none had had such a deep impact on the dungeon.

And the human itself proved to also be a valuable piece, even if he was not a creation of the dungeon or related to the being, he pretty much acted as a guardian of it, thanks to his actions, bosses had regained memories from before their assimilation into the dungeon and his presence was just like that of a roaming boss, watching him mess with that large group without outright killing them had proved to be entertaining and his ever changing appoaches to this certainly helped.

"You'll see Nyar, this place will become entertaining even to father!" spoke the unknown being, nearly no one would have been able to understand its words and even fewer, resist what would come from hearing them.

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As Malmiere watched the goblins on the islands attempt to board their ship or to attack them with ranged weaponry, he noticed that they seemed prepared, maybe prepared was a bit too much, they were aware that the expedition would come by in advance and seeing the hand mark on each of their faces, he guessed that something had alerted them in advance.

The expedition's ship passed by an island, its inhabitants already riddled with arrows, the trees on said island stopped anyone from seeing much of what was happening and with the fog, it was even more difficult but a few seconds before, the cover from the trees would end, Imiril sensed the presences preparing an ambush ahead.

"ENEMIES ON OUR LEFT" she yelled as the encounter would happen in but a few moments and as everyone got ready to intercept what was to come and when it suddenly appeared before them, they had trouble believing what they were seeing.

"What the fuck is this shit?" cursed Malmiere out loud upon gazing at what was ambushing them, from behind the cover of the trees, a ship appeared with as crewmates goblins, not even some of these semi-aquatic goblins, green goblins with bears and all of the stereotypical pirates accessories.

However there was an even stranger figure considering what was happening, a very humanoid figure dressed in dark clothes and with a round mass of orange energy surrounding its head and upon looking at it, Malmiere recognised it as the double presence he had felt until now and Imiril also recognised the presence although she had never sensed the second one.

The figure raised its finger in the air and an orange fire was shot out into the air, illuminating the surrounding and getting the attention of all monsters that saw it apart from one.

Seeing the familiar technique, Malmiere ordered to have the boat accost the nearby island, as solid ground would be better than a sinking ship in case it came to that, as they were doing that and as the many monsters were approaching the area, the elven paladin gazed at the figure, it was the first time he had seen it in person, from what he could see, it was either a sapient individual from outside concealing its face or a nameless figure.

"You!" spoke the paladin, pointing his spear at the figure, ignoring the arrows and bolts coming from the pirate goblins that were harmlessly bouncing off his armor.

"Come fight me for once!" he said, a classic to lightly provoke an opponent and with Malmiere abilities to take agression on himself, it was enhanced, however the subject of the provocation didn't seem very impressed and instead flipped the paladin off before diving under the water and disappearing from sight.

It clearly was a person and an asshole at that.

Every member of the expedition got off the boat and hopped onto the island, a good decision as when the monsters arrived some time after, they absolutely ripped it to shreds with extreme prejudice, only a few planks remained floating after they were done with it.

The island they were on was quite large and covered in thick vegetation and tall trees, the ground was surprinsingly firm.

"Malmiere" spoke Imiril with an unhidden distress.

"We fucked up real good here" she said with an awkward smile on her face.

"What do you mean, Imiril? We are on dry land, we may have lost our ship but with the space mage, we can always build another one" responded the paladin, not understanding what she was trying to get at.

"This is no island Malmiere" she simply responded before a loud growl sounded, the noise bouncing off the bottom and sides of the gigantic ocean and the island started sinking, the dark water suddenly cleared up.

Vlasfimia who was standing on an island further away was able to see the monster that had been posing as an island until now, a monstrous fish-like head with two eyes on each sides, five gigantic tentacles on each sides and a turtle-like shell covered in vegetation to trick unsuspecting victims to put their feet on it.

A legendary monster, trickster of sailors and roaming boss of the forty-second floor of the world dungeon, a hafgufa.